Rural South Dakota school goes “all in” with Accelerated Math for state test prep.

Castlewood Elementary, a small rural school in northeastern South Dakota,
started using Accelerated Math seven years ago, and fourth-grade teacher
Mark Iverson says there’s no feasible way they’d ever give it up.

“We have completely revamped our rooms and changed our way of thinking,” said Iverson.
“I couldn’t imagine going back to a textbook and paper. Textbooks just can’t compete
with what Accelerated Math can do.”

Used in grades kindergarten through six, the math program allows Iverson
and other Castlewood teachers to print practices from the day’s lesson,
customized for each individual. All students receive immediate results
on their work as soon as they scan in their answers.

“The teacher, as well as the student, instantly knows if the material was
understood,” Iverson said. “No waiting for the next day, correcting papers
for hours, or lost papers associated with the pre-Accelerated Math days.”

This means that no valuable time is lost, either. Advanced students are further
challenged, while struggling students get the on-the-spot attention and additional
practice they need. This year, Iverson’s students can also generate and score
assignments—even review their progress—right from their home computers using
Renaissance Home Connect.

“My struggling students have enjoyed the fact that they can get the next
practice at home so they can get caught up,” Iverson said.

To help ensure that students don’t slip through the cracks and fall behind,
Castlewood tracks student growth with STAR Math. The data available through
STAR Math and Accelerated Math also help pace classroom instruction, offer
alternate methods of instruction for a particular objective, and indicate
student progress with respect to state standards. Iverson said that students
at Castlewood move seamlessly from daily math practice with Accelerated
Math to South Dakota’s State Test of Educational Progress (STEP).

“Accelerated Math has questions that are formulated very similar to most standardized
tests, so they don’t waste time and effort trying to figure out what the question is
asking,” Iverson said. “The other contributing factor to their success is the program’s
daily reviews on previously mastered objectives. We may be talking about fractions on
the current objective, but their practice will also include multiplication word problems
from 20 days ago.”

Castlewood’s success with Accelerated Math stems from jumping in with both feet
from the beginning. Despite ongoing funding challenges typical of a small
school, each classroom received a scanner, laser printer, and laptop. Students
were given folders with library card pockets inside for their scan cards.

“Each classroom turned into a self-sufficient, intensive, and engaged math paradise!”
Iverson said. “We knew that for the program to succeed, we needed to go all in. The
nice thing about Accelerated Math is that each and every student will succeed because
it’s so individualized.”

Differentiated instruction key to steep math gains in CA classroom.

Differentiation is the goal for classroom instruction, but admittedly not easy
to do—unless you have Accelerated Math, says John Daffron who teaches second and
third grade at Newport Heights Elementary School in Newport Beach, California.

“With Accelerated Math, you have a differentiated math program for every student—one
so individualized that every strength and weakness is clearly defined and can be acted
on immediately,” Daffron said. "The amount of feedback and the daily interaction with
each child make it impossible for anyone to fall through the cracks."

Certainly, that’s the case in Daffron’s math class. In the 2009-10 school year,
100 percent of Daffron’s third graders scored Proficient or Advanced in math on
the California Standards Test (CST). Of the 22 students, 18 scored Advanced and 3
earned perfect scores.

“I know on the fly if they understand the material or not, and I can follow up
with more instruction, or take them to Tier 2 intervention for help and later
roll them back into the system,” Daffron said.

Anything he might not see on the fly is flagged on Accelerated Math’s Diagnostic and
Status of the Class Reports, which Daffron refers to regularly to make sure all students
are staying at their normal pace and no one is slipping behind.

Daffron says that Accelerated Math promotes student enthusiasm by providing motivation,
as well as active engagement. They love the process of working independently, entering
their scores with the handheld responder, going to the computer and getting instant
feedback, then connecting with Daffron for kudos or areas of improvement.

“Everything comes together in a perfect storm,” Daffron said. “They love feeling that
they are old enough to have some responsibility for their own learning.”

Test scores, confidence in math on the rise at St. Louis high school.

Since implementing Accelerated Math, Clyde C. Miller Career Academy in St. Louis,
Missouri has made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two years in a row—a remarkable
achievement in a district that lost its accreditation several years ago.

“We credit our success with two things: a collaborative work of the team of freshman
teachers and the use of Accelerated Math,” said Clyde C. Miller math teacher
Victoria Shearing.

In Clyde C. Miller’s first year of Accelerated Math use, state test scores
quadrupled from 6% proficiency to 24%. The second year, scores again
increased significantly to 36% proficiency. This year, Shearing says the
academy will make AYP for the third year in a row and their test score
expectation is 45% proficiency.

These advancements are no small feat at a high school where students arrive
two to three years below grade level in mathematics. Clyde C. Miller Career
Academy, a public school that offers qualifying students technical training
and certification as well as high school diplomas, has a high-minority,
high-poverty population with 78% of students on free and reduced lunch.

Most of our students come to us after many years of failure in math, not believing
they can succeed anymore,” Shearing said. “They’ve never had individualized
assignments, and they’ve never been individually recognized at the levels that
Accelerated Math allows me to do it. With Accelerated Math, they know that it’s
all about their unique goals and they’re not lost in the masses.”

Accelerated Math was initially tested on a limited scale at the school to see
how it would help prepare students for the End of Course examinations in Algebra.
It was so effective that the program is now used by all high schools and middle
schools in the district.

The practice students get through Accelerated Math has benefited Clyde C. Miller
students in many ways. Shearing says they have better opportunity to truly
learn the concepts through repeated exposure to problems, and the individualized
assignments allow them to learn qualitatively, not quantitatively or vicariously
through other students.

“Students have to actually work for their results, and they own those results,” said
Shearing, who uses the Status of the Class Report daily as a concrete way to hold
students accountable for doing the work and scoring their assignments.
“Individualized assignments lead to ownership of the knowledge, which in turn
increases their confidence and their enthusiasm for schoolwork.”